Microsoft Not Budging On Xbox One’s $499 Price, Kinect Requirement

Yesterday was a rather big day for gamers everywhere as Microsoft rescinded the Xbox One’s requirement to connect to the Internet every 24 hours and will allow its customers to treat physical copies of games how they currently treat them with the Xbox 360 by allowing them to resell, trade and borrow games as much as they like.

There certainly are a lot of changes going on for the Xbox One, but unfortunately, two additional issues potential Xbox One owners have with the console, its pricing and its requirement to be used with a Kinect at all times, won’t be changing any time soon. Joystiq spoke with Xbox chief product officer Marc Whitten about both issues, first, discussing its $499 price point:

“We really believe deeply in the value that we’re delivering. Not just for the first day of launch, which we think is going to be amazing, with amazing games and entertainment experiences, but what this architecture can deliver over the long term. We feel good about our price.”

The topic of discussion then turned to the Kinect, which if removed from the Xbox One bundle, could certainly drop the price to something more gamers are comfortable with.

“We still absolutely believe in Kinect. It’s a core part of the architecture. Frankly, it’s really critical that you build it as something that’s always there, always part of the platform. So that game creators, experience creators can know they can rely on it. And you, the user, that there’s always a consistent experience. That it’s not just an accessory.”

Microsoft may have backtracked on the Xbox One’s used games and its requirement to access the Internet every 24 hours, it looks like they’re not budging on its pricing or its Kinect any time soon. From what we’ve seen so far, it does look like the Xbox One needs to use the Kinect on a regular basis to be able to interact with much of the console’s interface and features. This shouldn’t be looked at as a bad thing since the current-generation Kinect offers some nice features, and we can’t wait to see how the second-generation Kinect performs.